The high school jazz ensemble is trying to raise $17,000 to help pay for its trip to a national contest this April in Branson, M

The high school jazz ensemble is trying to raise $17,000 to help pay for its trip to a national contest this April in Branson, M

WAYNESBORO, Pa. - Junior and senior members of the Waynesboro Area Senior High School Jazz Ensemble will return to Branson, Mo., in April to reprise a performance they did there in a 1999 contest when they were in the middle school jazz band.

The high school band will, as they did when they were middle schoolers, represent Pennsylvania in the competition.

All the 23 members have to do is raise $17,000 to pay their expenses to the Show Me State.

They were the only middle school band invited to play in annual Branson Jubilee National Jazz Band Competition in 1999. Now juniors and seniors, they have been invited back to compete in the 2003 competition, said Patrick McNamee, a school music teacher.

"We never knew where the invitation (in 1999) came from," McNamee said. "All we knew is that someone heard us play somewhere and invited us.

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"They remembered that they were so impressed with our performance in 1999 that we've been invited back," he said.

High schools from across the U.S. are invited to compete in the competition, McNamee said. Last year, 35 schools signed up.

The competitions are sponsored by a private company, McNamee said.

In 1999 the Waynesboro middle schoolers competed against high school jazz bands. That year the competition was won by a Jefferson High School band from Jefferson County, W.Va.

Waynesboro High has had a jazz band since the 1950s, about 30 years before the current members were born.

The band members plan to raise money for their trip by offering to play at local functions for donations. They have five gigs set up so far, including a school board dinner, an Elks Club event and for a local police group, McNamee said.